The Thinking Heart

Despite the challenges brought about by the weather and a variety of interruptions I finally managed to finish the first piece of work of 2013 this morning. Admittedly the snow we had last night and this morning did make me abandon my shed for the comfort of the kitchen to do the final grouting and cleaning off but it's done!
Here's a couple of photos showing the work in progress made in reverse as outlined in the last blog. Basically reverse technique means you apply the pieces to brown paper upside down then apply adhesive to the surface and whatever substrate you're using. Once the adhesive is dry you flip the piece and soak off the brown paper revealing the right side of the mosaic. One of the perils of working this way is that many materials do not look the same - see below where the two sections which look the same here are broken ceramic tile. The real colour of these tiles is pale lilac but they look exactly the same on the back as any other ceramic tile. Colour juxtapositions can be hard to judge working like this especially on large works.

This side is called Heart of Gold as the centre is gold mirrored glass

Ignore the background as I have it on an old chopping board! This shows the head and heart motif in reverse before adhesive has been applied

Here's the final showing the thinking heart motif.

Here's the heart of gold side - you can see the lilac ceramic tiles in all their glory now!

New Year, New Mosaic Challenges

Happy New Year to everyone reading the blog. 2013 already, and the wet and dreary weather is not conducive to spending time in my shed come workshop but I'm so engaged  in the piece I'm working on that I've been layering up in warm clothing and getting on with it. I should also mention that glass hates being cut when it's cold and it shatters and splinters more easily so my running commentary that I keep up to myself when working has been using words best kept private!
The piece I'm working on currently is a heart shaped form incorporating a head and brain design. Odd topic for a mosaic? Maybe so, but I'll reveal the whys and wherefores in my next blog when I hope to show a photograph of the finished work. Meantime having had a false start using a direct application method which just means applying the pieces of mosaic material face up the way they are in the finished work, I'm now using an indirect method, often called the reverse method because you make the mosaic by placing the pieces face down initially, the great benefit being that one can use different thicknesses of material and still end up with a flat finished surface. There is always the extra excitement of the big reveal when the work is turned up right side up - and hopefully all the pieces stay in place when the work is flipped over! More of that too in the next blog. Now, back outside.......